Background
Ariel Serena Hedges was born in Newark, New Jersey where her father, Charles Hedges, was a Presbyterian clergyman. Her mother represented one of the oldest Presbyterian families of that state.
Ariel Serena Hedges was born in Newark, New Jersey where her father, Charles Hedges, was a Presbyterian clergyman. Her mother represented one of the oldest Presbyterian families of that state.
Her parents moved to Pittsburgh, where she attended the Avery Institute and completed the academic course at this school.
Twentieth Century Negro Literature (1902) noted that "she is regarded as one of the foremost and best cultured women of her race."
He was a 1869 graduate of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and he had organized churches in New York State. Her grandfather was a bugler in the Mexican war, and was a Guard of Honor when Lafayette revisited the United States. She was sent to high school in Springfield, Massachusetts where she remained, and they graduated her with honor in 1885.
She also took the Teachers" Course and Examination and passed a creditable examination, afterwards being favorably considered as teacher for one of the schools of that city.
She then was called to teach History and English Language at the Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama under Professor B. T. Washington. She read Greek, Latin, and German with facility.
In 1886, Hedges was married to Doctor J. West. East. Bowen of the Gammon Theological Seminary, Atlanta, Georgia. Bowen also was a notable figure in the Southern Women"s Christian Temperance Union, writing The Ethics of Reform and serving as state president of the Georgia West. C. T. University, Number.